This invention relates to rechargeable dispensers, in particular rechargeable spray bottle dispensers, that can be recharged or refilled. Specifically, the present invention is particularly directed to spray bottle dispensers having one or more reservoirs containing chemical associated with the spray bottle dispensers so that the spray bottle dispensers can be recharged by simply adding water or some other suitable solvent, and accessing one or more of the chemical reservoirs to form a diluted chemical reagent.
The use of spray bottles for dispensing chemical reagents (e.g., water, cleaners, soaps, insecticides, hair spray, etc.) are well known. Due to regulations limiting the amount of volatile organic carbons (VOCs) released in the atmosphere, products originally contained and dispensed through aerosols are currently being replaced with spray bottles.
Bottlers of chemical reagents typically market their products by purchasing separately empty plastic container bottles and sprayheads. The bottlers then fill, assemble, and label the completed spray bottle packages for delivery to retailers. Consumers purchase the filled spray bottles at the point-of-sale, and then consume the chemical contents of the spray bottle. Most consumers dispose of the spray bottles upon the one time use of the contents of the spray bottles. However, the spray bottles are still fully functional with respect to containing and dispensing chemical reagents, since the plastic bottles are substantially chemically resistant and the sprayheads remain fully functional after consuming the contents. Conventional point-of-sale type spray bottles can be recharged numerous times with chemical concentrate and water (i.e. at least 10 times, possibly 100 times while maintaining full operation). Thus, consumers dispose of large quantities of reusable product (i.e., empty spray bottles) having high utility value.
In today""s environment of numerous regulations to control pollution, and consumer and industrial awareness for conserving resources and reducing landfill waste, it is highly desirable to promote the reuse of products that maintain their utility, and dispose of only products that no longer have any utility. Many bottlers are currently selling concentrate in various sized containers to allow consumers to recharge point-of-sale type spray bottles with their particular concentrates. However, many consumers are unwilling to adopt such methods apparently due to some inconvenience in the steps involved with the recharging process of the spray bottles. In particular, there is some inconvenience in removing the sprayhead, opening the chemical concentrate container, pouring the chemical concentrate into the empty spray bottle, adding water, and re-attaching the sprayhead to the bottle. Further, consumers apparently lack interest in recharging spray bottles due to some reluctance based on their inexperience and knowledge in mixing and diluting liquids, which is done by processing chemists for the bottlers. In addition, recharging is usually a messy undertaking due to spillage of chemical concentrate while pouring from one container to the other, overfilling, accidentally knocking over the bottle being filled due to its instability when unfilled, and other undesirable mishaps that can occur, that provide substantial inconveniences.
Importantly, sizeable containers (e.g., pint, quart, gallon, liter sizes) of chemical concentrate can be significantly hazardous to transport and handle by consumers unaware of the potent chemical properties of the chemical concentrates. Specifically, chemical spills of concentrate can damage items around the home including flooring, carpeting, countertop in kitchens and bathrooms, shelves, and other items the chemical concentrate could potentially come into contact with. Further, chemical concentrate can impose a significantly greater health risk to persons coming into accidental contact therewith potentially causing tissue burns and other damage.
Most importantly, chemical concentrate imposes a great risk to children who may accidentally ingest the chemical concentrate and become poisoned. Chemical concentrate greatly increases the chance of permanent injury or death in this regard to children versus current diluted chemical reagents contained in point-of-sale type spray bottles.
An object of the present invention is to provide a rechargeable dispenser, in particular a spray bottle dispenser having one or more chemical concentrate reservoirs associated with the spray bottle dispenser.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a rechargeable dispenser, in particular a spray bottle dispenser having one or more chemical concentrate reservoirs disposed within the spray bottle dispenser.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a rechargeable dispenser, in particular a spray bottle having one or more chemical concentrate reservoirs disposed within the spray bottle dispenser, and accessible by bursting.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a rechargeable dispenser, in particular a spray bottle having one or more chemical concentrate reservoirs disposed within the spray bottle dispenser, and accessible by puncturing.
These and other objects can be achieved by the rechargeable dispenser, in particular the spray bottle dispenser according to the present invention.
The main concept according to the present invention is to provide a rechargeable dispenser, in particular a spray bottle dispenser package having at least one supply of chemical to allow the spray bottle dispenser to be recharged at least one time. The chemical can be in the form of a gas, liquid, semi-solid or solid. Specifically, the chemical liquid can be a one phase mixture, a two phase mixture, a dispersion or any other chemical reagent having liquid characteristics. The chemical semi-solid can be in the form of a slurry, paste, solid dispersed in a liquid that still exhibits some liquid type characteristics, and the solid can be in the form of powder, granules, tablet or other solid material form.
The chemical is preferably a concentrated chemical that is readily diluted with a solvent, in particular plain water. Preferably, the chemical can be immediately diluted, however, a chemical substance that can go into solution over a 24 hour or longer period of time can potentially be suitable for some applications.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention involve associating at least one quantity of chemical with the spray bottle dispenser itself. Specifically, the chemical is stored in some manner, and connected directly internally or externally to the spray bottle dispenser. However, the present invention is broader in scope to include packaging the chemical and spray bottle dispenser together (i.e., connected indirectly) to be marketed at the point-of-sale. In this embodiment of the invention, a consumer would purchase the package containing a supply of chemical and the spray bottle dispenser, separate at home the spray bottle dispenser that has been filled by the bottler from the package and store the chemical portion of the package separate from the spray bottle dispenser in the household. The user would then retrieve the stored chemical upon consuming the initial contents of the spray bottle dispenser for purposes of recharging the spray bottle dispenser.
The preferred embodiments of the invention store the at least one quantity of chemical directly or indirectly inside or outside the spray bottle dispenser. In the case of an indirect connection to the spray bottle dispenser, a mechanical fastener such as a plastic strip connects an external chemical reservoir to the spray bottle dispenser. In the case of a direct connection, the chemical reservoir is directly connected internally or externally to the spray bottle dispenser. The most preferred embodiments store the at least one quantity of chemical inside the spray bottle dispenser, particularly the bottle portion, to fully contain any inadvertent spills or leakage of chemical through the life of the spray bottle dispenser. These most preferred embodiments provide substantial advantages for handling, recharging and protecting household items from contact with chemical, and most importantly to prevent accidental ingestion by children. This particular point is especially important due to the much greater potency of chemical concentrate versus diluted chemical reagents currently being sold by bottlers at point-of-sale.
The most preferred embodiments also utilize conventional spray bottle dispenser components including plastic bottles, plastic sprayheads, and plastic downtubes. In order to promote products incorporating the present invention, it is particularly important to utilize the standard components that are readily available and relatively very inexpensive due to the large quantities sold and consumed. Thus, an add-on chemical reservoir for storing the chemical is highly desirable.
The most preferred add-on type chemical reservoir is an insert received within the bottle portion of the spray bottle dispenser. This type of insert can be manufactured extremely cheaply in high volume while providing all the performance characteristics necessary for a safe and reliable product. Specifically, the insert can be made with one or more chambers or cells containing chemical that can be accessed in various ways. For example, the reservoir can be sealed with membranes that can be punctured with an instrument, in particular the tip of the downtube. Alternatively, the walls of the chemical reservoir can be designed or configured so as to be readily bursted upon application of external pressure to the chemical reservoir. Adding lines of weaknesses, thinning of walls and other means for locally weakening a portion of the chemical reservoir can be implemented for use in the present invention.
Alternatively, one or more of the components of the conventional spray bottle dispenser (e.g., bottle portion, sprayhead portion, downtube) can be modified to provide the chemical reservoir. For example, the walls or bottom of the bottle portion can be modified, by molding a chemical reservoir in one or more sides of bottom of the bottle portion, the sprayhead portion can be provided with a chemical reservoir, and/or the downtube can be provided with an add-on chemical reservoir or the walls of the downtube can be molded to provide a chemical reservoir. However, all of these approaches will initially be substantially greater in cost due to the modification of conventional components not necessitated by the use of an insert according to the present invention.
The insert according to the present invention can take on many different forms and configurations. A first preferred embodiment of the insert is defined by a cylinder having one or more chambers or cells disposed therein. The interior of the cylinder can be provided with one or more bisecting walls to define the chambers along the length thereof. A plastic cylinder having one or more bisecting walls can be easily extruded in plastic. The top and bottom of the one or more chambers of the insert are sealed by upper and lower sealing membranes. The membranes can be films, foils, composites of films and foils, or any other suitable composite that is both chemically resistant and subject to being punctured readily by an instrument, in particular, the tip of the downtube, or can be made to burst.
The upper and lower sealing membranes can be connected to the insert by bonding, adhesive bonding, thermal bonding, sonic welding, or suitable methods for forming a liquid tight seal (e.g., hermetic seal).
This embodiment of the insert can be marketed inside a filled spray bottle dispenser at point-of-sale. The downtube extends through an open chamber of this insert down into the lower portion of the bottle portion to access premixed chemical reagent added by the bottler during manufacture. After consumption of the chemical reagent, a user unscrews the sprayhead and lifts the downtube from the bottle portion. The insert is rotated so that one chemical reservoir is now positioned where the open chamber was previously positioned (i.e., now registered for being punctured by the downtube). The user then forces the tip of the downtube through the upper sealing membrane, down through the chamber, and then punctures the lower sealing membrane. Water can be added through the open chamber of the insert before or after the step of accessing the chemical reservoir by puncturing with the downtube. This configuration allows the chemical to be always stored within the confines of the spray bottle dispenser, and minimizes the steps needed for recharging the spray bottle dispenser.
The consumer will experience little inconvenience in removing the sprayhead and downtube from the bottle portion, rotating the insert, puncturing the chemical reservoir, adding water through the open chamber of the insert, and reassembling the sprayhead portion to the bottle portion. Further, the chemical concentrate stored within the insert is extremely safe for handling and preventing accidental consumption by children (i.e., a child would have to successfully unscrew the sprayhead portion from the bottle portion, fully remove the downtube from the bottle portion, and successfully puncture the insert). Further, even in the event of puncture of the insert by a child, the access opening through the upper sealing membrane would be sufficiently small to substantially limit spilling and containing most chemical from being easily ingested by a child. Thus, the present invention provides substantial safeguards over current methods of selling large quantities of chemical concentrate at the point-of-sale, and subsequently having the consumer handle and mix the chemical concentrate in his or her home.
This particular insert can have one, two, three, four or more separate chambers or cells. For example, in the case of four cells, one cell would be an open cell through which the downtube is initially placed by the bottler during assembly when the spray bottle dispenser is provided with an initial charge of diluted chemical. Thus, in this example, there remains three cells that can be utilized as three separate chemical reservoirs. This four cell configuration would allow the user to initially consume the premixed diluted chemical reagents of the spray bottle dispenser, and then recharge the spray bottle dispenser three more times prior to consuming all the chemical contained in the spray bottle dispenser. If the consumer then disposed of the spray bottle dispenser at that point, this would provide a three time improvement over the current practice of consumers utilizing a spray bottle dispenser one time prior to disposal. Thus, the consumption of spray bottle dispensers could be reduced three-fold (i.e., one fourth the waste) if fully implemented.
However, this invention can even provide for an even greater improvement over current practices by consumers. Specifically, this insert can also be sold at the point-of-sale as a separate item that could be added to conventional point-of-sale type spray bottle dispensers having no inserts after the initial consumption of the contents, or for use with spray bottle dispensers having inserts according to the present invention after the complete chemical consumption of the inserts initially sold with the units.
This new system would greatly decrease the shipping weight and costs associated therewith, decrease retail shelf space for marketing the product, and most importantly greatly decrease the consumption and waste of plastic material. Specifically, the volume of plastic needed to make the four chamber insert described above would be a small fraction compared with the weight of plastic of four conventional spray bottle dispensers based on equal amounts of useable diluted chemical reagent. Further, the insert when the chemical is completely consumed has little utility value versus the utility value of an emptied conventional spray bottle dispenser that can be reutilized numerous times. Further, conventional spray bottle dispensers are substantially much greater in cost to produce relative to the insert according to the present invention, and would conserve significant labor and other direct and indirect costs associated with the production of conventional spray bottle dispenser components versus the insert according to the present invention. Further, the insert according to the present invention can readily be recycled, and could potentially be refilled if an adequate system were developed to reprocess such inserts, however, more than likely the inserts would be disposed of by consumers based on convenience factors.
A second embodiment of an insert according to the present invention involves forming a strip of chemical reservoirs that can be disposed within the bottle portion of the spray bottle dispenser. The strip of chemical reservoirs can be made at high speed, and would most likely be made in a continuous strip and cut to length when completed for insulation in each spray bottle dispenser. The strip type insert can be manufactured by a high speed molding technique such as vacuum forming the chemical reservoirs from a plastic strip, filling the chemical reservoirs with chemical, and sealing the chemical reservoirs. This completed strip is then cut to length based on the number of reservoirs to be added to the spray bottle dispenser, and is preferably attached by adhesive or other technique to the inside surface of the bottle portion. The chemical reservoirs made of the plastic strip are made in such a manner so that the chemical reservoirs can be punctured by an instrument, in particular, the tip of the downtube, or can be made to burst by adding external pressure to the chemical reservoir. A user can burst one or more (i.e., one, two, three, etc.) of the chemical reservoirs to specifically tailor the concentration of the diluted chemical reagent. Thus, the concept according to the present invention allows the consumer some latitude in selecting concentration levels currently unavailable with conventional spray bottle dispensers.
In a third embodiment, a plurality of separate cylindrical chemical reservoirs can be added to the inside of the bottom portion. The cylinder chemical reservoirs are provided with an upper sealing membrane that can be punctured by an instrument, in particular the tip of the downtube. The cylinder reservoirs can be separate units or connected together by a strip, or by some other manner. The cylindrical chemical reservoirs are preferably located at the bottom wall of the bottom portion to allow easy access by the tip of the downtube during a puncturing operation. In a fourth embodiment, cylindrical chemical reservoirs bridge the side walls of the bottle portion. The cylinder reservoirs are made so they can be burst by simply pressing together the walls at the location of the particular cylinder reservoir.
In a fifth embodiment, separate donut-shaped chemical reservoirs are added to a conventional downtube. The donut-shaped reservoirs can be made so as to be punctured or burst for chemical access. Alternatively, one or more small holes through the inner surface of the donut-shaped reservoirs can be provided and sealed by the downtube itself (adhesive can also be provided to insure adequate sealing). In this type of arrangement, the chemical inside the donut-shaped reservoir can be accessed by simply pulling the donut-shaped chemical reservoir off the downtube exposing the opening through the inner wall of the donut-shaped reservoir. The donut-shaped reservoir can be removed by unscrewing the sprayhead portion from the bottle portion, lifting the downtube until the lowermost donut-shaped reservoir is located at or near the opening of the bottle portion, holding the donut-shaped reservoir by the fingertips of one hand at the opening to the bottle portion, and then lifting with the other hand the downtube so as to detach the donut-shaped reservoir from the downtube, and then allowing the donut-shaped reservoir to drop into the bottle. Water is added before or after to dilute the concentrate to form the diluted chemical reagent.
In a sixth embodiment, an insert is provided with a plurality of reservoirs in a stepped and stacked array. The top reservoir is thinner and deeper compared with a bottom reservoir that is wider and shallower. One or more reservoirs having dimensions in between that of the top and bottom reservoirs can be provided therebetween. This stepped and stacked arrangement allows easy access to any of the chemical reservoirs by an instrument, in particular the tip of the downtube for puncturing a membrane sealing each reservoir.
In a seventh embodiment, a plurality of reservoirs are provided in an insert and a stacked arrangement. Each reservoir is sealed at the top and bottom with a sealing membrane. A person using a spray bottle dispenser containing this insert initially punctures the upper and lower sealing membranes of the upper reservoir during a first recharging operation, punctures the upper and lower sealing membranes of the middle reservoir to access chemical in the middle reservoir during a second recharging operation, and does the same to the third chemical reservoir in the third recharging operation.